Moonrise Kingdom

I'm not a fan of Wes Anderson's work. I think he tries too hard to make his movies cute and quirky and in the effect they never feel effortless. They just seem pretentious and are clear examples of style over substance. That said, there are some of his movies I actually enjoyed and found to be quite charming like The Royal Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Rushmore. I really wanted to like Moonrise Kingdom, but I ended up strongly disliking it. In fact, if the movie didn't have beautiful cinematography it would probably be around 30-40 points. It has everything that could have worked beautifully - it is set in New England - magical place. It takes place in the 60's - magical time. And it has music composed by Alexandre Desplat - composer of magical scores. But you can't have true magic without strong story.

For me the most important thing in a movie are the characters. They don't necessarily have to be likable, but they should be interesting. Even if the movie is awful, if there is a single character you love watching you won't hate the movie. The problem with Moonrise Kingdom is that it only has two characters I genuinely liked - Edward Norton's Scout Master Ward and Bruce Willis's Captain Sharp - and they are not featured enough in this movie. Instead, we follow lifeless and boring adventures of two kids " in love".

That's the biggest problem with Moonrise Kingdom - the protagonists, especially the boy, are very unlikable. From what I recall this is the first time Anderson has children as main heroes in his movies and it's obvious he doesn't really know how to write a likable or even consistent child character that would be able to carry the film. In fact Sam and Suzy are written as if they were adults, which is really bizarre and weakens the plot - Anderson can't decide whether they are just silly kids or individualists who deserve their freedom.

Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward) are both twelve years old, they are misunderstood and don't have any friends. They meet during the show where Suzy plays the raven and become pen pals. They come up with a plan to escape together. The problem here is that in their scenes, I felt absolutely no connection between the two. It's not actors' fault, in fact they were trying their best and seeing how this was their first acting job they were very impressive. However, the script is so weak here that the justification "they are both outsiders who found each other" doesn't work at all. In fact, they don't even appear to like each other yet they are supposed to be in love!

Watching Moonrise Kingdom and to be specific watching their scenes, felt as if someone was putting those comic speech bubbles I put in my graphics on the movie itself. It's like when they were dancing and kissing I was supposed to buy the fact they are in love because the plot and characters tell me so. It is not how it works. We are supposed to feel emotions with the characters, not merely being informed about their feelings. Also the scenes depicting their intimacy were cringe worthy and I felt really uncomfortable by the fact twelve year old girl was shown so prominently parading in her underwear.

Still, the movie wouldn't have lost me, but Anderson featured a scene where a dog is shot with an arrow. This is not the first time he killed a dog in his movies. I don't know what is wrong with this man, but this is just repulsive. If you are going to kill helpless animal, you better justify it. There is no plot progression because of this occurrence, there is no reason for this to be happening. I'm taking away 10 points from this movie for this and honestly, if I hadn't plan on writing this review I'd stopped watching the film right there. But I don't think it's fair to talk about a movie until you finished it.

The redeeming points of the movie? Well, we have cinematography - it is absolutely beautiful and as with all of Anderson's films every single shot is meticulously planned. There are details everywhere, placed very carefully that make each shot feel so alive. Unfortunately, the beautiful style of the movie only reveals the ugliness of the half-ass script. The music by Alexandre Desplat works well with the film, but as his recent works is disappointing - I initially liked the soundtrack, but after few listens it's really unremarkable. Desplat has been spoiling his talent for years now favoring quantity over quality.

The acting is very good, especially considering how little the script is allowing the actors to do. Bill Murray and Frances MacDormand are fine in their roles of Suzy's bitter parents and Tilda Swinton shines in brief appearance as social worker. I found Jared Gilman to be extremely annoying, but that's probably because his character was so unlikable - this was what Anderson accomplished here, he made an orphan unlikable. Kara Hayward's Suzy on the other hand is a much better character and another in the line of Anderson's insecure, misunderstood and lonely heroines. Hayward showed real promise here and despite young age and lack of experience she showed tremendous understanding for her character.

But the two biggest highlights are Edward Norton and Bruce Willis as the scout and a cop who are looking for the escaped couple. Norton hasn't been this good in years - he is sweet, heartbreaking and adorable, so adorable even he is one of those characters you wish you could hug, He is a genuinely kind person who cares about the kids as does Captain Sharp - who is equally lonely as Scout Master. When these two were on screen it was almost like a different movie - that is much better, engaging and fun movie.

There are many adorable things here - Bishop's house, ridiculous tree house, Suzy's outfits, bird costumes and the dog (that is until Anderson mercilessly slaughters him) among many others - and it almost makes me feel bad for not liking it. But the truth is the longer Moonrise Kingdom went on, the more annoyed I was. The film is fun to look but it's dead inside, it's completely emotionally unavailable. And dry humour and deadpan delivery can be fun, but you can't have every single actor, delivering every single line in such a way. I'm sure there are many people who will fall in love with this movie, but it's quite simply not my cup of tea. Yes, I disliked that movie. And no amount of pretty things, vibrant colors and Pierrot Le Fou references is going to change that.

Moonrise Kingdom  
(2012, 94 min)
Plot: Set on an island off the coast of New England in the 1960s, a young boy - Sam, who is an orphan and just escaped scout camp - and girl - Suzy, who feels misunderstood by everyone in her life -  fall in love and decide to run away from their problems together. They are being pursued by the scouts, the police officer, Suzy's parents and social services, while the dangerous storm is approaching.
Director: Wes Anderson
Writers: Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola
Stars: Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward and Bruce Willis

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